#re: zack

[catherine-bisset]

Starter for @zackastor en route to the explosion site.

In the absence of Orion and Isaac, there had only been one option left for Cat. They'd left within hours of the explosion, a brief conversation on his porch and an even briefer touch base with those staying behind.

Hours later, the debris started and Cat stopped. No look to Zack, who was likely stopped somewhere nearby, as well. When there wasn't any reaction to her, Cat pulled herself up into a tree dripping dark fluid.

The source was revealed quickly enough. Most of a black bear was impaled on a thick branch. Cat remained crouched where branch met trunk, trying to make sense of the sight. Tried to spot where the rest of the bear may have landed.

Eventually, Zack circled around, and Cat spoke low to indicate her location. "Black bear. Impaled. Still losing blood." Recent death - not blast damage. Cat eased out further, spotting numerous bent-back branches pressed into fur. "Shoved onto the branch."

[emeraldblonde]

Zack Fair in Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission

[save-the-data]

We Best Love: Fighting Mr. 2nd | S02E02

Taiwanese Drama - 2021, 6 episodes

Episodes | Viki | YouTube | Netflix | WeTV | Tencent | Prime | Catalogue

[naritaren]

[desude]

Last steps to Midgar ⛅️

[emblazons]

WARNING: FFVII spoilers + ship talk—scroll if you want to skip, because I am simply commentating my own gaming experience & not trying to start a war in the comments

-

It’s the way I’m DESPERATELY trying to play FFVII with an openness to Cloud and Aerith because I know it means so much to so many people—and yet even when I go to YouTube and watch alt versions of mandatory scenes I cannot fathom how people are missing the subtext of “Aerith knows and acknowledges Tifa is so much more than Cloud’s friend even as she wants his attention because she doesn’t know if he’s really himself, has been extremely lonely since Zack left + knows somewhere she’s going to die for herself” ☠️

Like I am 3000% for FF ships that have a lot of groundwork but aren’t primary canon, because Square is notorious for building true chemistry between people who are not ever canonically romantic (hello Phoenixflare) but…it’s getting kind of absurd to see how many people are denying the subtext of Aerith as secondary to Tifa solely because they love their ship.

Perfect example: the scene where Aerith goes up on the Nebelheim water tower (a place wholly and entirely tied to Cloud and Tifa’s ongoing relatonship) and asks Cloud about his town…only for us to get this:

As someone who just consumes media generally…the whole subtext of the scene is clearly that Aerith trying to 1) pull Cloud’s actual memories up from the mind muck he’s going through (something she and Tifa both do repeatedly) and 2) remind Cloud of the side of him that inherently has always had a whole ass crush on his childhood best friend to help jog his memory.

Sure, it reads as a cute moment between them if you want that…but if you’re paying attention to the purpose of the scene itself and what’s being said (verbally and subtextually)…it’s astronomically clear this is a Cloud x Tifa recognition delivered to the audience through a Cloud/Aerith moment…and this happens repeatedly ☠️

And then…immediately after having her be upset that she doesn’t have someone the way Cloud has Tifa, and asking to be alone? I…I just. Like it’s so hard to be here in the middle of a war about “optional scenes” when shit that happens to everyone happens just like this 😭

[batfleckgifs]

BATFLECK | ENRICO MARINI’S BATMAN.  Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)  Batman: The Dark Prince Charming (2017)

[eddiesshovel]

Prettiest angels. Of death characters

Danny's gay as fuck I would've become a straight man

[youmourn]

im actually so frustrated because i want to write so bad but ive been so tired and i dont have the motivation to rly write on here ive been playing games or sleeping going back to full time has rly killed me

[youraveragecatastrophe]

Something I really appreciated while rewatching The sticky rice caper was how many times Carmen doesn't have the upper hand. She holds her own against Tigress on the truck but doesn't wipe the floor with her. In fact, she's in a pretty bad position at several points during the fight before getting thrown off the truck. At the festival, Tigress wins in their staff fight.

I like that! It helps making Carmen a more believable character, and makes Tigress an actual threat.

[doberbutts]

Have you ever scrolled past shipping discourse that paints one of your notps in such a negative and out of character light that you become sort of offended on their behalf?

FF7 trailer dropped and I'm not saying I'm a Cloud/Tifa fan (even tho since compliation is apparently canon they are in fact co-raising two children together) but damn you don't have to do my girl dirty like that just because it'd be convenient to write her out of the narrative. At worst she's Cloud's best friend and his only link to his childhood and his village, and it's she who drags him back from the abyss when [redacted redacted spoiler spoiler]. None of the others know him well enough to have been capable of doing the same.

Since Zack's alive somehow and Aerith knows more than she's letting on it'd be possible for the remake to give that role to either of them (or even Sephiroth since he also knows way more than he should and has unclear motives) but you can't say that you could erase Tifa's character entirely and the story would play out the same. She's so, so important to him. She's why he joined up with Barrett's crew. She's why he survived the first round at the crater. She's why he plucked up the courage to stab Seph in Nibelheim in the first place.

You can code them as just really good friends without discarding her importance to him entirely.

[catherine-bisset]

Introductions

Ft. @zackastor , in which the new councilman and the new arrival resonate.

Zack

Familiarizing himself with the new arrivals was something he'd done even before he was on the council. Being able to put a name and some facts to the faces he met on the daily, even if he never talked to them, always came in handy. And now, as a member of Redwoods leaders, that'd become his job.

"Name's Cat, right?" Zack asked, in a tone that made clear it wasn't a question, as he stepped up the cell, hands in his pockets, and regarded one of two of Redwoods new arrivals. "Name's Zack, part of the council. Figure people already told you about how this place works. So, we're gonna have a talk."

Cat

Dominant tone, no hesitation in approaching melee range with hands in pockets. Statements instead of questions. Well presented, real or not.

By way of answer, Catherine settled cross-legged in the center of the cell and ignored the crackling of aged viscera flaking loose. They'd have to sweep the place out when her time was up.

Isaac said they had rules here. So far the singular rule was We Ask You Answer. So fine, let this one have his turn Asking.

Zack

He'd expected something of an answer, though her sitting down in the middle of the cell seemed to be the only one he was getting for now. His eyebrow raised, Zack regarded her for a moment. As far as he knew, she was a former Reaver, one of Ike's friends. Which meant, Zack was cautious, even if he didn't show it as he entered the cell and closed the door behind him.

"What job did you do for the Reavers?"

Cat

Held eye contact, no poker face. Cell unlocked. Good - people only locked doors when they didn't want to be interrupted. He wasn't worried about her getting past him. Test unlikely. She'd come willingly, wanted to stay.

Tasting each thought, each observation, she watched him as predator watches predator. Wary respect for the display, for the coiling of some darker thing behind his eyes. This was a curiosity - if he was more than peacock.

Zack

He took in the quick, shotgun-like countdown of her duties. While he couldn't quite yet be sure where her short-wordedness came from, whether it was irritation, lacking respect or her nature, his bets were on the latter option.

"Lure, huh?" Zack posed, not expecting much on an answer just yet. "You lured in victims for your Reavers." He was all too familiar with that concept from his time with the Daybreakers, except that the Daybreakers didn't treat their lures well. Meg was just an example of that. Zack regarded her from narrowed eyes. "Did you like it?"

Cat

Her Reavers. Such blood to paint her hands with.

So be it. Let him believe her that persuasive. A leader at last, for the lawless and chaotic.

The question halted her smirking internal monologue. After moments' reflection, Cat chose honesty. "Some earned their end."

Zack

"What exactly does that mean?" Zack stepped towards her and knelt down in front of her, resting his elbows on his thighs as he regarded her. "People got different views of what makes somebody worth killing. Or enslaving. What are yours?"

Cat

Chin lifting, Cat met Zack squarely. He came to her level, almost into her space. Dominant energy but not aggressive. The dam held.

"Zack," the word emerged somewhere between reprimand and purr. "You made it here. Thick arms. Strong jaw. Voice rolling out all rumbles in a tiger's chest." Her eyes moved over the skin he showed, close enough now. "But not flawless." Scar at the lip. Another not entirely hidden at the throat. "You know what it is to choose." *Hypocrite*, her answer whispered.

"Fight. Flight. Freeze. Fawn. Zack." Cat purred it again, dragging the syllable over her teeth. "Zack. When the hand is on you, when the fingers creep and the blade cuts - what is your view of their worth?"

Zack

That wasn't the response he'd expected. He'd thought there'd be the same short, precise answers. Her response made something at the base of his neck prickle. It wasn't the feeling or being in danger, or even being eyed up by someone who wanted to put a knife in your throat. It felt like she was looking at him, working to get at his innards and sort through them. Much the same way he was working at her now. The way she spoked itched at something primal.

"Mh." Zack trailed his tongue along his canines, feeling them poke into his flesh. It'd been survival to her, as much as what he'd done was to him. It'd been that with the guilty, as with the innocent, he figured. "Why did you leave the Reavers?" He shifted the conversation. "Just because your old pal was in town? You like him enough you'd abandon your people for him?"

Cat

Smallest shifts under the skin, but no lashing out. No cringing away or denial. No, Zack had let her answer dance over his tongue and recognized the truth.

Her voice still tasted like biting a fork, but Cat had found a path with Zack, and took it. She'd given away her story before. This was just recap plus new chapter. "Spend thirty-six years less-than-human, Zack. Be another's spectacle. Sinner. Monster. Over and again. Eternity in cold, hard, bloody places. Then-" Cat inhaled sharply, remembering. "Someone looks at you and it isn't for profit. What you can do or be for them. What they can *take*-"

Cat paused, annoyed at her own voice for going thick. For the puncture of jagged nails in dry palms. "He saw me. Accepted and cared. Put in me this hope like teeth that maybe I could finally be human." Cat had let her focus drift, but snapped it back to meet his eyes once more. "Isaac chose Redwood. I chose him. There is no other reality than this."

She could feel her jaw tighten, the scars burning like new. "We left them on the same day - a few insulted Reavers spent the end of their lives trying to force me to regret it. To-" Again she caught her anger in bared teeth, lips drawn thin, word spat in disdain. "*Apologize*."

Cat laughed. Bitter echoes around the cell. "All that time, they still didn't know me."

Zack

She went from what seemed like a pointed offense into defense, revealing more about herself, her story. Except it wasn't really a defense. It felt as pointed, as sharp as her previous remarks. Almost cryptic, but perfectly posed to convey what she meant. She'd been treated as less than, and then found someone who was willing to treat her as more. It didn't take much imagining what the Reavers had done, or tried to do, and how they'd paid, in the end.

"So, you're loyal to Ike. Where he goes, you go and all. And-" Zack spoke low, and deep. "If Ike leaves, you leave too. If he says jump, you jump. If Ike betrays us, you betray us too." His words probably would have been provocative to anyone else, but for her, it was probably a matter of fact, her reality. Zack regarded her for a moment. "How far would you go to follow him?"

Cat

Further exchange of touch, brushing, pressing - not experimental but strategic. Zack took the offered story and plucked the essence from it, the moral, without emotional response.

The kind of neutral only another escapee from Hell could manage. The wire inside plucked again. Synchrony.

Reflection and assessment and finally the point - the real point. Cat took her time, eyes holding eyes that held hers. Her Isaac, built to puppeteer others - how many times had she watched him do exactly that in the Reavers? Measuring out sweet and salt as each needed to secure his outcome. Even here, even now, he sat at the table of influence.

Yet, never had Cat been treated as someone in need of filtered, managed reality. Every atom of her devotion had been earned, and Cat knew implicitly Isaac would never ask what was not his to request. "As far as he would ask."

Zack

"Mh." The open devotion shouldn't surprise him. Ike attracted people like that. Or more like he was purposefully gathering up the strays who didn't quite fit in anywhere else. In turn for being given a place, they were loyal, swarming his sides like a pack. That wasn't an issue. Zack could work with that, because he could work with Ike.

"You seem pretty damn sure of Ike." Zack said, the words indicating provocation but not his tone. He regarded Cat for a few moments longer, seizing her up. Letting her size him up in turn. "What are you gonna do when he dies?"

Cat

The ebb and flow of Zack was steady familiar now. Acknowledge. Digest. Press or move on. Resonance.

Something approaching a smile had been forming when Zack spoke the idea she had rejected for years. Return was the axle on which the world turned. Now, mere hours after that reunion, could she conceptualize Isaac's death?

Zack wanted the word everything else grew around. The word at the bottom of the coil that wound its way through her. He would smell a substitute.

Her smile was gone, but calm remained. "I survived before Isaac. I will survive after."

Zack

He could watch the gears turning. She didn't like the question, just like none of the raiders enjoyed it. He'd posed the same question to Nicki. Nicki said she'd continue his work, or probably go out with him, following him into death. Ike seemed to be very much a part of her core, and yet-

"You'll survive." He repeated, trailing over the syllables. He narrowed his eyes at her, staying quiet for a few, long moments before finally easing up. "Alright. That's enough." He took a step back, regarding her, still seated on the ground in the same position he'd found her in, barely having moved. "You can stay. Tell Ike the good news."

[genimas]

Dang it! I was reminded of the day last year, so and I've been ready for yesterday since then so you know how I must feel right now after realizing I missed it. All the fun I missed will now haunted me every time when I in bed.

So here the revival people been asking for since forever (I can really work on the expression though)

I miss the show!! * sobbing* *burst out crying* *make art to feel better, don't feel better at all*

[save-the-data]

We Best Love: No. 1 For You | S01E02

Taiwanese Drama - 2021, 6 episodes

Episodes | Gaga | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Tencent | Catalogue

[venturebroes]

this is Halloween halaoolalalallalalalalaa

dramatic ass drawing of brock n rust as Dan and Herbert as my submission 4 my friends art server

[oveliagirlhaditright]

FFVII Rebirth has, of course, awakened my love for all of the FFVII characters and my ships there... And I want to go into their tags to look for awesome art for them and whatnot, but then I remember I can't. Because now their tags are chockfull of spoiler-y things I haven't gotten to yet.

Soon, though. Soon.